Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century, Revised and Expanded

Technical Innovations and Their Lasting Impact

Vaclav Smil (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

744 Seiten

2025
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-778464-8 (ISBN)

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Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century combines two of Vaclav Smil's seminal works in a revised and expanded edition. Creating the Twentieth Century explores the period between 1867 and 1914, a time of unparalleled innovation that laid the groundwork for modern civilization. It investigates the birth of an expansive society driven by the synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation. Key inventions from this era include dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs in the 1870s, followed by electricity-generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, and cars in the 1880s. The period of extraordinary discovery continues into the early 20th century with the advent of airplanes, tractors, radio signals, and plastics. Smil systematically examines four fundamental classes of innovations: the formation and standardization of electric systems, the rapid adoption of internal combustion engines, the surge in chemical syntheses and material substitutions, and the dawn of the information age. This interdisciplinary account highlights the epochal consequences of these advancements, leading to high-energy societies engaged in mass production aimed at improving living standards.

Transforming the Twentieth Century investigates how these technical advances shaped the decades that followed. It examines how the 20th century differed from the preceding 100 years due to unprecedented combinations of technical progress. Smil discusses the remarkable pace and ambition of 20th-century advancements, which elevated industrial production to new heights and tackled previously insurmountable challenges. He addresses the themes of electricity, engines, materials, and information techniques, and critically examines the contradictory consequences of technological progress--including liberating simplicity versus overwhelming complexity, unprecedented affluence versus economic disparities, and increased security versus new fears.

This new edition contains numerous updates to the original books and features a new preface and a final chapter examining key themes in light of major 21st-century events and publications. Now in a single volume, these classic texts remain central to Smil's acclaimed oeuvre, and their lessons are perennially fascinating.

Vaclav Smil does interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. He has published more than 40 books and nearly 500 papers on these topics. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy) and a Member of the Order of Canada. He has worked as a consultant for many US, EU and international institutions, has been an invited speaker in more than 400 conferences and workshops in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, and has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe and East Asia. He is Bill Gates' favorite author.

Part I. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact
1: The Great Inheritance
2: The Age of Electricity
3: Internal Combustion Engines
4: New Materials and New Syntheses
5: Communication and Information
6: A New Civilization
7: Contemporary Perceptions
Part II. Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences
1: Transforming the Twentieth Century: Debts and Advances
2: Energy Conversions: Growth and Innovation
3: Materials: Old Techniques and New Solutions
4: Rationalized Production: Mechanization, Automation, Robotization
5: Transportation, Communication, Information: Mass and Speed
6: New Realities and Counterintuitive Worlds: Accomplishments and Concerns
7: A New Era or an Ephemeral Phenomenon? Outlook for Technical Civilization
Part III. Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Two Decades Later

Erscheinungsdatum	10.04.2025
Zusatzinfo	235
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	167 x 234 mm
Gewicht	1225 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften
	Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
ISBN-10	0-19-778464-X / 019778464X
ISBN-13	978-0-19-778464-8 / 9780197784648
Zustand	Neuware